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to any of the clubs or organisers of the events featured. Words and Pictures
by Michael unless attributed otherwise. Michael is a proud member of the MCC,
ACTC, Dellow Register and Falcon amongst others, but does not represent their
views nor the views of any other organisers or clubs.

New Clerk of the Course Bill Rosten got
Class 0 on the Lands End about right.

The night time sections were very dry
and and straightforward and with lots of grip didn't cause most
competitors too much trouble. Come the daylight a combination of tricky
restarts and artificial turns spiced things up and increased the failure
rate, leaving 17 of the 61 starters clean for a Tin and 20 with one fail
for a new Copper award. Some had an issue with timing, picking up
penalties for being late at the finish.

David bache on the Class 0 section at Bishops
Wood (Picture by Dave Cook)

All the Class 0 competitors
started at Bridgwater, the accumulation point for the main trial. Catsash
was the first observed section, about 20 miles from the start and formally
used on the main trial. Regular triallers from Stroud and DMC were in
charge here but didn't see much action as it was very dry and there was a
lot of grip.

Diversion
on the way to Minehead

There was a long diversion
because of roadworks on the way to Minehead. After passing through the
town the route turned off to the left before Porlock, merging with the
main trial where everyone attempted the Crook Hill Special Test. Falcons
Mike Pearson was on the finish line here and was surprised that a number
of competitors didn't realise there was a flying finish.

The other sections during the
night and dawn were reasonably straightforward with plenty of grip in the
dry conditions. The breakfast halt at Wilsey Down was welcome and gave
competitors an opportunity to relax for a while before tackling the final
six sections which were to prove somewhat challenging.

Cardinham
Woods

After the gentle Petherwin Old
Hill the route entered Cardinham Woods where it merged with the main trial
to tackle Lady Vale. This is a smooth forest track which wouldn't be a
problem if it wasn't for a narrow chicane with a restart at the top. The
restart was a problem and around a quarter of the entry couldn't get away.
There would have been more fails if competitors had been penalised for
hitting the restart boards as quite a few demolished them as they slid
sideways while trying to get away.

Back to its unique route Class
0 had two more sections in the Cardinham Complex, Mays and Silver Lead
Mine. They were both nice sections. Silver lead Mine was spiced up by an
artificial chicane and this caught out a few, including John Guy who lost
his Blue Hills Tin Medal here.

Bishops
Wood

The Bishops Wood complex saw
Class 0 merge with the main trial again for the Bishops Path Special Test
where most of the Class 0 motorcycles picked up fails, including the
experienced Roy Warren who lost his Blue Hills Tin.

Old Bishops Wood started
alongside the main trials restart area for their Bishops Wood section. It
started with a sharp turn before a steepish bank leading to a long gully,
turning on to a well surfaced track, before deviating up a slippery steep
bank. This needed a fair amount of momentum which caught out eight of the
entry, including Ryan Norman (Suzuki X90) who incurred his only failure of
the event.

Blue
Hills

All that remained was the
tarmac section at Old Blue Hills, with no option to tackle the main trials
Blue Hills section this year. It wasn't going to be easy as there was a
fearsome restart right on the hairpin. A couple of competitors decided not
to stop, of those that did around a quarter couldn't get away, and seven
car competitors lost their Blue Hills Tins here, including John Turner in
his Dellow Mk2. This was very disappointing for John who had overcome a
series of electrical problems earlier in the trial.

Penalties
at the Finish

This wasn't the end of the
trial though, there was still the 19 mile run to the finish, back North
East up the A30, to the joys of the Premier Inn and Brewers Fayre at
Fraddon. As usual the MCC had threatened dire consequences for taking
excessive time to get here from Blue Hills and three Class 0 competitors
were penalised, costing Colin Biles his Blue Hills Tin.

All in all it was a well
thought out Class 0 from new Clerk of the Course Bill Rosten. None of the
sections were too rough for older or less well prepared cars. Probably the
biggest issue would have been the strain on the transmissions attempting
the steep tarmac restarts. Considering the dry conditions there were
surprising few clean sheets and although some considered the night time
sections a bit tame they would have been a different proposition with
different weather.